February is Black History Month in the United States. Did you know that one of the people responsible for what we now know as Black History Month was a Humanist? Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875 – 1950) was a historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African-American history.
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The other day I read an essay by Noam Chomsky that contained some obvious Humanist principles we should all support. The title caught my eye ‘What Is the Common Good?’. I was interested in Chomsky’s idea that a reasonable definition of the common good was a democratic social order based on workers’ control, respecting the dignity of the producer as a genuine person, and not a tool in the hands of others. In this way humans would be fulfilling our just aspirations. It isn’t currently what we have in the United States.
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Steven Newton over at the National Center for Science Education’s (NCSE) ‘Science League of America’ blog is doing a series of posts that refute some of the common arguments creationists use about the Grand Canyon to prove their silly ideas. In the post answering the claim that the rocks in the Grand Canyon were put there by Noah’s Flood, Newton takes down the claim in a convincing manner. He shows the large stretch creationists have to make to push their idea that the rocks were left by the ‘great’ flood.
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On Tuesday December 10th, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) released a report titled ‘The IHEU Freedom of Thought Report 2013′ which focused specifically on the rights, legal status, and discrimination against Humanists, atheists and the non-religious in every country in the world. While the worse result of being a freethinker could be death, there was some kind of discrimination in most countries including the United States.
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Former political prisoner and President of South of Africa Nelson Mandela passed away on Thursday December 5th. He was imprisoned for 27 years for battling against apartheid in South Africa. He was elected the first black President of the country after apartheid was ended.
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One of my pet peeves about the Humanist movement is that some support the use of religious words or activities in Humanist settings. Using such words in the context of a nontheistic philosophy like Humanism not only causes public confusion but also dilutes our message and shows a lack of conviction of our own principles, not to mention it is a bit silly. We should define ourselves and not let the religious do it.
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